Prez wrote on Feb 13, 2020, 11:06:
How does your bank 'pressure' you into selling your shares? Maybe things are different in Sweden?

I don't know the circumstances of the person's finances but if you are in major debt personally, I imagine the bank can force you to sell assets to pay them back if you want to avoid bankruptcy or going to court and stock in a company is a financial asset. They might have told him "Sell your shares to pay us back. No, it's totally fine and not illegal."

This comment was edited on Feb 13, 2020, 15:56.

Yet another studio in the Bay Area, just a couple of years after Hangar 13, another studio that opened in the same area, was gutted because Mafia 3 only sold a few million. I don't get why so many AAA publishers keep opening studios in the most expensive cities in the world, then wonder why their games can't turn a profit.

Kxmode wrote on Jan 25, 2020, 05:53:
there's only ONE version of Borderlands 3. ONE Metro Exodus. ONE Phoenix Point. And ONE Shenmue 3. You can't buy another version of those games on another store.

Not to sound like I'm defending Epic because I have no interest in doing so but you can get Metro Exodus and Phoenix Point through the Windows Store and also get them on PC through Game Pass. The Outer Worlds too for that matter (that's how I played it.) I'm not sure what loophole developers are able to use to get around their Epic deals this way but a number have and more seem to be.

I only got to see them in concert twice but I stil vividly remember it both times. A truly amazing show to see in person.

Rush is my favourite band of all-time by light years and got me through some very hard times in my youth. Neil Peart was a singular talent in a band full of singular talents and what he had to endure in his life plus this shows that the life can just be a massive dick to people who don't deserve it.

Watched the R40 Blu-ray tonight at a volume that makes me glad my downstairs neighbour is almost never here. Recorded a long podcast episode talking about my memories of the band that I hope I can post tomorrow, just for some bit of closure.

The news was a kick to the soul today. Rest in peace professor.

It's the tail end of a console generation so it's time for all the hand-wringing clickbait about the death of the industry to start. Same thing happened last time when everyone said consoles and PCs were dead and everything was going to be on tablets. They were wrong then and they're wrong now.

Beamer wrote on Dec 20, 2019, 09:49:

Pr()ZaC wrote on Dec 20, 2019, 09:46:
Just another way to collect user data.

Yes, that's a great way to describe Androidsmartphones.

Still no shopping cart, still no ability to gift games, still only has cloud save functionality for a few games and it's unreliable at best, no achievements, no any other number of things after a year of release and the bottomless pit of money Epic has.

Meanwhile, Steam recently released a feature that lets you play any local multiplayer game online with near zero input lag and only requires one person to own the game you're playing. And GOG is about to release one of the best unified launcher applications ever written.

But please Epic Defence Force, tell me again how Epic is better for consumers.

The Epic exclusivity bribes have been constantly pitched by Tim Sweeney and his sycophants as giving developers the financial means to take the time with their games they need to make sure they ship in the best way possible because they won't be crunched to hit a deadline. That's supposed to be the primary benefit of this for consumers and even that isn't happening.

I am amazed that people still come out in defense of Glumberland. They announced their exclusivity in the most condescending, patronizing way possible and when anyone criticized them for it (even politely), responded with vitriol and attacks, including but not limited to telling long-term Patreon backers who can no longer buy the game because Epic doesn't support their currency that they were acting entitled by expecting to be able to buy the game they'd been backing for months.

But of course, nothing can even be the fault of the devs themselves, not even a little bit. No, they can act as assholish as they want towards the customers they theoretically want but a handful of scumbag trolls (and it's always a handful, inflated as it to be a meaningful number) do what trolls do and this is suddenly an epidemic of hate.

I'm not a "Steam or nothing person." Right now, I have Steam, Origin, GOG, Uplay and Game Pass (Windows Store) installed, plus I own all the consoles. Epic's store is unfinished, feature barren, has laughable customer service (granted, so does Steam but Epic is supposed to be better) and has had multiple security and privacy breaches this year alone. I am not entitled for wanting to be able to buy games on a platform that isn't garbage, I am a consumer expecting developers to earn my business.

I am a huge indie game advocate but the economics of the developer's businesses are their problem, period. I don't own stakes in their studios and they don't care where my money comes from, so why am I supposed to care where theirs comes from? If you want to take an Epic deal, please feel free. I won't buy your game until it either a) Comes somewhere else (for example, I played Outer Worlds on Game Pass and bought Control on sale for Xbox One) or b) The Epic store becomes some semblance of complete and shows they have their security issues sorted.

This is a business, it's not a charity. Customers are entitled to expect choice and value for money and to complain about it when they don't get it. Do a handful go to far? Yes and that's unacceptable but welcome to the Internet. In the case of Glumberland, maybe don't insult your customers if you don't want strong feedback. Reap what you sow.

Let's not forget games like RUNE II, which took Epic money and then the developers abandoned it the day after launch. Or Phoenix Point, which took Epic money and still launched a broken mess. Or Mechwarrior 5, which took Epic money and launched basically unfinished and a dumbed down version of previous MechWarrior games (though it's Pirahna Games, I don't know what people expected.) Anyone who thinks the 88/12 split that Epic is offering now is sustainable in the long-term is kidding themselves. There's a reason that when Steam just launched an incredible system that allows you to play ANY local co-op or competitive game online, the Epic store is still lacking basic things like a shopping cart. When the Fortnite money rolls out, they won't be able to keep bleeding on their store.

But I'm sure RedEye and the other members of the Epic Defense Force will swoop in soon to tell me what a scumbag I am. They always do.

necrosis wrote on Dec 9, 2019, 21:02:

CJ_Parker wrote on Dec 9, 2019, 19:47:

Kxmode wrote on Dec 9, 2019, 19:27:
Who's stupid idea was it to charge full or near full price for a game that's been available on PC for over a year? Do they seriously think people are going to be okay with this? After a year of release on a platform (PC is the platform), it should be selling for 19.99.

Why? Why not fleece the Steam elitists while they can? I know I would!

That's the cool thing about EGS exclusivity for the devs and publishers: Double dipping galore.

They have a ton of guaranteed sales both from Steam elitists as well as drive-by sales from the 90 million active users/month.
Win-win-win situation for them to go EGS exclusive. Money up front, money from selling on the EGS for a year, even more monies from the Steam/GOG (etc.) release (and also from being able to put it on more key stores).

Because everyone who uses/would rather use Steam is an elitist.

Jesus fucking Christ...|

It's CJ being CJ, I don't know why anyone takes anything that self-admitted troll says seriously.

My friends and I love playing these games but what a weird series. Oovee burned their relationship with the developer of Spintires, who went on to develop Mudrunner and eventually Snowrunner with Saber Interactive. It was called Spintires for a while, now it isn't any more. Oovee basically went dark and was thought to be out of business but now they're back developing DLC to the original Spintires and doing it with another dev.

Friggin' weird.

Kxmode wrote on Nov 13, 2019, 15:41:
Wait. If they're closing, and they're the publisher, who's getting the money? Epic?

The management I imagine. Bethesda didn't buy the Rune IP and they also didn't buy Human Head, they just hired all the employees to help start a new studio from scratch that they wholly own.

This was clearly something they planned to do for a long time. I thought the whole point of Epic exclusivity bribes was to provide financial cushioning so devs didn't have to risk going under if their game didn't sell. That's what both Sweeney and several devs have said. On top of this, their Twitter statement said the game has exceeded their day one sales expectations. Big deals with Bethesda don't happen overnight so this really looks like the management just took as much money as they could, shoved the game out the door and are now bailing out with the riches. Anyone who wants to see this game on consoles or something not the Epic store, don't count on it.

They claim the game will continue to get support but don't lay out how that's going to work when none of the employees work for the company any more and Bethesda's not going to want them spending time on their payroll supporting a game they don't own. If I were anyone who bought this rushed mess, I'd refund it and wait to see if they actually do step up and support it. If they do, buy it again.

Cutter wrote on Nov 13, 2019, 17:58:

Golder wrote on Nov 13, 2019, 14:11:
Uh, the game they released just before this is The Quiet Man, and really that shows that the studio went downhill a long time ago

Brink. 'Nuff said.

That was Splash Damage, who sold to a Chinese company a few years ago.

Hope you all like massive wastes of screen space.

The lack of self-awareness in this article is hysterical. If a dev or publisher deviates from the press' group-think even a little bit, they are publicly eviscerated for it. And they actually wonder why they're scared of being political.

In before the usual suspects call me alt-right for recognizing that shades of grey exist in the world.

I'll take "You can't make this shit up" for $1,000 Alex.

Full pre-loads went live last night and you can get it now. It's 37.3GB.

I played a pre-release demo for this at PAX and was very intrigued. The devs kindly gave me a press code so I'm hoping to stream this soon. Very excited for it.

If people want 4K textures in their big open-world games, those things need space.